


New Year, Old Me

by bottomsup



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, New Year's Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 02:07:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17255597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bottomsup/pseuds/bottomsup
Summary: Mainly fluff, but a little plot. Josie doesn't care about a New Years Kiss, and she doesn't want to be at Lizzie's party. And she definitely doesn't want to see her ex in a glittery dress right in the middle of it all. This is post breakup, but pre 1X06.





	New Year, Old Me

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic ever so pls gimme some feedback! Super new so it's not great, but im working on getting better  
> My Twitter is @posie_stan

This dress is itchy, there's glitter everywhere, and Lizzie already has her tongue down some guys throat.  
This is going to be the worst New Years Eve party ever.

Josie was already not so fond of this night. She enjoyed the simpler things in life- quietly reading a book, baths, and most importantly- going to bed early. New Year's Eve was one of the many times she allowed Lizzie to plan their evening and things were not going well. Except for the free pigs in a blanket and bottomless champagne, Josie had not found anything to like about this night. Don't be mistaken, she loved the atmosphere of resolutions and wanting to be a better person, but most of the people here would stick to their resolutions until January 5th and then give up. She's not usually this cynical, but she has to stare at Penelope in her stupid glittery dress smirking at her from across the room everytime she looks up. She doesn’t know why she still thinks of this girl so much, but even in the midst of all these adrenaline-soaked teens all she could think about was the Satan incarnate herself, ten feet away, dancing like nobody's watching. But someone is watching, and she’s pretty sure Penelope knows that. All these blurry bodies and she’s on her mind.

Now is not the time to reminisce over an ex or even give her the power of knowing Josie is watching.

Josie moves through the waves of party goers to find her twin, who’s hooked on the arm of…. M.G.? Unexpected, but judging from Lizzie’s slurred words and louder-than-usual laugh, is the product of one too many glasses of champagne. As she nears the two of them, it seems like M.G. is taking care of Lizzie rather than advantage of her. That should be her job right now, just like it always is.

“Hey Liz, are you doing okay?” Josie questions.

“I am doing AMAZING, Jose.” Lizzie practically shrieks.

“She’s had a lot to drink and some guys were getting handsy. Although I know that she can handle herself and I don’t subscribe to the gendered stereotype of a man needing to save her, I wanted to make sure there were no vamps trying to use her as a Lizzie Capri Sun.” M.G. sighs.

“I think it may be time for you to go home, L. I can take you back to our room before dad gets home, he shouldn’t see you coming home from “a harmless and family-friendly” New Years Eve Party.” Josie states, almost excited at the opportunity to leave.

“The ball hasn’t even dropped yet! I can’t leave!” Lizzie says, exasperated.

“Oh, great. So will you be explaining to dear old dad why you can’t walk straight or shall I?” 

“Wow, buzzkill. I think you need more to drink.”

“And I think you need less. Come on, you need to go and we need to clean this party up before dad gets back.”

“I don’t want you to take me home. I want M.G. to take me since he’s the only one around here that knows how to take care of me.” Lizzie shouts above the blaring music.

Ouch, that hurt. Josie always extinguishes Lizzie’s fires, cleans up her messes. And the fact that she doesn’t see that right now really stung Josie’s heart. 

It’s the alcohol talking, Josie knows that. She just doesn’t think she can deal with drunk Lizzie, the oncoming pounding headache from champagne and loud music, and cleaning up a little before her dad gets home.

“Fine, M.G. will you please take her back right after midnight? I’ll start cleaning up the bar so dad doesn’t see all the empty alcohol bottles when he gets home.”

“Yeah, of course. I’d do anything for my favorite Saltzman twitches.” M.G. responds, happy that Lizzie notices his effort.

Josie texts Hope, who is obviously still in her room.  
“Hey, Lizzie is coming home right after midnight, Can you make sure she stays quiet once M.G. walks her home?”

Immediately after she puts her phone in her pocket it vibrates.

“Yes.”

Hope was never one for small talk.

That leaves her one job- clear the alcohol out while she still can. As she pushes past the crowd, she looks back at Lizzie for a brief second, just to make sure she’s still safe. This one second look cost her the biggest mistake of her life. Bumping right into Penelope Park, spilling the glass of champagne in her stupid little hands all over her stupid little dress.

“Woah, Saltzman. I know I look better than you, but if you’re this jealous just ask me to leave, don’t ruin my dress. Penelope remarks, a smug look on her face.

Josie falters and stumbles over her words “I didn’t mean t…..I’m sorry.” she chokes out, clearly flustered. Then she realizes who she’s talking to and quickly regains her composure, making sure to reinstate the aurora of hatred around her. “Or maybe I’m not. I hoped you’d melt.” Josie spits.

“I was wrong.” Penelope states matter o factly.  
Confused, Josie cocks her head, eyebrow in the air, frown in full effect.

“You look way better than me. I don’t know who I’m more jealous of- you, or whatever low grade wolf you’ve decided will be your New Years Kiss.” Penelope looks Josie up and down, pausing before speaking again. “But still, you owe me a drink.”

Josie rolls her eyes. “I’m about to throw everything away. You can come pour yourself a drink, but I won’t be giving you anything.” 

“We’ll see about that.” Penelope lingers over that sentence far longer than Josie is comfortable with.

“Whatever” Josie remarks as she makes her way to the refreshment table. She feels Penelope’s eyes on her and soon after, can feel her following her. She didn’t think she’d actually take her up on her offer.

Weaving through jumping bodies, she finally makes it to the refreshment table.

“Wow, we live amongst pigs” Penelope surveys as she sees the hoard of empty glass bottles.

“Yep”

As Josie starts cleaning up, throwing the bottles into the trash can next to the table, Penelope joins in, polishing off a champagne bottle before throwing it in the trash.

“Debt repaid.” Josie really wants her to leave.

“Not yet.” Penelope slyly states.

As they keep working on throwing the bottles, Josie feels the burning in her veins she always gets when Penelope stares at her. She looks to her side and sees Penelope practically pressed against her and drops the bottle in her hand. In fact, she drops it right against the concrete floor, where it shatters.

Josie was not prepared for that, and she really wasn’t prepared for Penelope to crouch down to catch it.

Josie bends down next to her and starts picking up the large shards, piling them on the table above them. She reaches down to pick up the last shard and notices a crimson splotch on the ground. 

Oh god.  
She’s maimed her ex.

Penelope holds her hand to her chest, trickling blood down to the floor below them. 

“You know, the drink was one thing, but I never knew you hated me enough to try and maim me.” Penelope didn’t even sound like she felt the pain of her bloody hand.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Josie’s mom instincts kicked in. “We need to get you a band-aid and neosporin and there is no way this party is clean so we definitely need to prevent an infect-”

“Josie, I’m fine. Just come with me and get some bandaids from the bathroom. I’d go alone but I’d rather not get blood on all the doorknobs in this school.”

Josie didn’t even think twice about it. She caused this mess, so she had to clean it up.

They headed towards the bathroom, which was always stocked with first aid kits for spells gone wrong or werewolves being too rough. 

As they entered the bathroom, they flipped a switch and the room was flooded with flourescent lighting. Josie looked back at Penelope and noticed how good she looked. Her makeup was perfect, her hair swooped over her face, and.. Weren’t people supposed to look bad after a night out? 

“I know you love staring at me, but maybe wait until after I’m all patched up.”

And the spell was broken and Josie snapped back into reality. She pulled out two bandaids and a sanitary wipe from the first aid kit and gently rubbed the blood off Penelope’s hand, backing off anytime she heard Penelope wince.  
“Does that hurt?” Josie questioned.  
“No, I’m wincing because it feels great. Yes, it hurts.” Penelope says through a clenched jaw.  
“I’m sorry”  
“Don’t apologize. You know you never have to apologize to me, Jojo.” Penelope softly uttered.

Josie felt her stomach drop at the mention of her nickname. Only Penelope called her that, and she hadn’t heard it in months. She used to look through her texts with Penelope after they broke up and count how many times a day she’d call her that. 

She could barely look her in the eye. She focused on putting the bandages on Penelope, putting each one firmly against the skin so it would stop the bleeding. 

“Thanks.” Penelope voiced.

Josie looked up at her, noticing the light bounce across her face like a saturated sunrise.  
“Yeah, not a problem. I take care of people, remember? Kind of my thing.”

“I know. Always taking care of everyone in a room before herself. Josie Saltzman, selfless, empathetic, and beautiful.”

Josie felt a burning in her throat. Penelope always complimented her like that, and she wasn’t used to it. Lizzie was always supposed to be the beautiful one and Josie was the smart one. But Penelope didn’t really care about supposed to be’s. 

Josie locked eyes with her ex and felt a twang in her heart.

“You can’t just say stuff like that.” Josie muttered

Penelope stepped closer to the girl, inching her way towards her until there was nothing but a breath between them. 

“I’m just saying facts, Jojo. You are selfless. You do everything for everyone else without even thinking about asking for anything in return. You are empathetic. You know what everyone is feeling, good or bad. And you are beautiful. God, you’re so beautiful and you don’t even know it. You are gorgeous, sure, but your soul Jo, you’re such a good person and you do what’s right because it’s right not because you’ll get anything out of it. But selfless people don’t always get things in return. So Jojo, when are you gonna take care of you? And when are you gonna take what you want? Do you even know what you want?”

A flame was making its way over Josie’s body. Call it love, call it caffeine, call it alcohol- but it was there. Engulfing her heart and her veins in that way only Penelope could. Josie felt her mouth go dry and her heart pounding so loud she was sure it would cause an earthquake.

“I had what I wanted, Pen. I had you.” Josie whispered, barely audible.

“You’ll always have me, whether we’re together or not. I’m yours. Yours to love, yours to hate, yours to annoy. That, Saltzman, will never change. I hurt you, I know. Tonight isn’t the night for the past. So why don’t you just let go of Lizzie and responsibility and consequences and just go get what you want?”

Josie’s mind went blurry and all she could hear was Penelope. She has tunnel vision and the world around her drifted into a haze as she focused on the girls face, searching for something. She didn’t know what she was looking for in those hazel eyes. Something inside of her broke away and she could feel Penelope’s warm breath on her face. For some reason, she wanted to take Penelope’s advice. She knew if she kept thinking she’d talk herself out of it, but she didn’t want to do that right now. Her breath hitched and she closed the gap between them, colliding her lips with Penelope’s. Her brain felt fuzzy and her heart felt hollow and heavy all at the same time. She felt a wave of warmth radiating off their connected lips, enveloping the rest of her body and she felt her hands snake around Penelope’s waist before she could even think about doing it. Penelope’s hands cupped her face and Josie felt electric daggers coming off of her fingers as soon as it hit her skin. Their kiss was filled with passion and softness, but that softness was quickly making way to a fiery heat. Their kiss was filled with everything they could ever say to each other, and everything they wanted to say. As their lips moved in sync, Josie’s hand wandered up to Penelope’s cheek, pulling her closer than humanly possible, breathing her in. Penelope moved her hand down to Josies neck and squeezed a moment before pulling away for air and pressing her forehead against Josie’s. Josie, breath ragged and mind blurry, looked into the girls eyes. Her pupils were huge and deep, filled with surprise and desire, but not regret. Josie never thought she’d be able to say she surprised Penelope. The room was silent save for their breathing and their respective heartbeats and neither girl dare say anything to ruin the moment or halt it. Instead, Josie ran her thumb over Penelope’s lips and trailed her fingers down to her neck and into her hair and simply sighed. “Mine?” she whispered barely above a breath, more a fact than a question. Penelope pulled Josie’s lips to her own in a soft kiss. “Yours.” she stated proudly. Josie slammed her mouth into Penelope’s, unable to keep herself from kissing the girl again. She was magnetic, everything about her. As they resumed the rhythm of their kiss a loud piercing ringtone cut through the air from Penelope’s cell phone. She pulled away from Josie, still hovering over her mouth and whipped out her phone. She glanced down, smirked, and looked right into Josie’s eyes.

“Happy New Year, JoJo.” Penelope chuckled. She looked back at the girl and kissed her once more, firmly. Then she pulled away again. “I’m gonna go clean up that mess before your dad gets home. You should go check on Lizzie, I can handle it down here.” She kissed the girl’s cheek and strutted out without another word.

Josie stepped back, shocked at what she’d just done, coming down from the high she just felt. Penelope was going to clean up her mess. She felt her heart stop for a second as she realized what had happened and what this could mean. But she didn’t care, she had done what she wanted. Her head was pounding, finally getting that headache from the music and she drudged upstairs.

She swung open her door to see Hope locking lips with Lizzie while sitting on the floor in their room. Lizzie pulled back immediately, wide-eyed and slack jawed staring at Josie.

“Well we both have a lot to talk about,” Josie gushed.


End file.
